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Kane159 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Continuous tense

Hi,
I'm watching Lost and one character says this sentence : Everything is happening for a reason.
I wonder why he doesn't use the simple present...

thanks in advance
  

Top answer

I don't know the intention of the screen writers, but the simple present would make it sound like a formal proverb - kind of preachy. The continuous is more informal and colloquial. It also gives the impression that this happens around us all the time, almost magically.

— AlpheccaStars

  • I don't know the intention of the screen writers, but the simple present would make it sound like a formal proverb - kind of preachy.
  • The continuous is more informal and colloquial.
  • It also gives the impression that this happens around us all the time, almost magically.
  • You just have to be observant and sensitive to it.
  • Just a guess.
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3 Answers
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I don't know the intention of the screen writers, but the simple present would make it sound like a formal proverb - kind of preachy. The continuous is more informal and colloquial. It also gives the impression that this happens around us all the time, almost magically. You just have to be observant and sensitive to it.

Just a guess.
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kane159Everything is happening for a reason.
All the things that are now happening to us are happening for a reason. (It's specific to things happening within a specific context, in this case, the things happening to and around the characters in the TV series.)

Everything happens for a reason. -- Everything that happens at any time at any place in th
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